Barcelona Day 1: Vettel leads rain-affected test

Sebastian Vettel was fastest of the pack today, as the Formula 1 testing season rolled into Barcelona.

He finished the day an entire second ahead of Fernando Alonso, after making his laps in the dying few minutes.

Most of the day was spent on the wet tyres, after heavy rainfall in the area the night before. The track eventually dried out near the end of the day. Jaime Alguersuari was 3rd, and Kamui Kobyashi 4th, although both drivers caused red flags. Alguersuari was the victim of a technical problem, while Kobayashi ran out of fuel after a fuel consumption evaluation run.
Jenson Button and Paul di Resta saw little activity out on track for most of the afternoon, although they were still 5th and 6th. Rubens Barrichello’s day was disrupted by a technical failure and an engine change.

Narain Karthikeyan managed the most laps out of all the drivers (116), but was 4 seconds off the pace – although he was driving last years F110. Heikki Kovalainen and Jerome D’Ambrosio were both well off the pace, and were 10th and 11th respectively.

Vitaly Petrov was miles off the pace, and coupled with a KERS problem, he was stuck at the back of the field with his team-mate. Nick Heidfeld was supposed to be driving in the morning, but only managed 27 laps of pit stop practice.